Digital Game-based learning (DGBL) model and development

Digital Game-based learning (DGBL) model and development methodology

for teaching history

NOR AZAN MAT ZIN

Faculty of Information Science and Technology

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

43600 Bangi

MALAYSIA

[email protected]

AZIZAH JAAFAR



43600 Bangi

MALAYSIA

[email protected]

WONG SENG YUE



43600 Bangi

MALAYSIA

[email protected]

Abstract: - History subject plays a vital role in instilling the spirits of patriotism among the students; to nourish and

instill love and loyalty to one’s country and to be a true citizen.The lack of creativity in history teaching caused

students to become bored and lose interest in the subject.Digital games, an interactive technology can foster learning

process effectively and interestingly especially among young learners. Digital Game Based Learning (DGBL)

approach utilizes the game as a medium for conveying learning contents. There are many models for educational

games development which combined the Instructional Design (ID) and game development process. However, there is

still a conflict on how to merge ID and game development effectively. Therefore, we looked into the pedagogy and

game design aspects. We then propose a DGBL model for History educational games design and a

developmentmethodology which combined the ID and game development process, named DGBL-ID model. The

DGBL-ID model consists of five phases: analysis, design, development, quality assurance as well as implementation

and evaluation.

Key-Words: - serious games, DGBL, Instructional Design (ID), History educational game, video games

1 Introduction History subject plays a vital role in instilling the spirits

of patriotism among the students; to nourish and instill

love and loyalty to one’s country and to be a true citizen.

Teaching and learning of history is appropriate for

students’ intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical

development. However, studentsperceived history

subject is difficult and very boring subject because one

has to memorize all facts in the text book besides

understand those facts, concepts, time and historical

events. The lack of creativity in history teaching caused

students to become bored and lose interest in the subject.

There are few studies shown that majority people

have experience in playing digital games. Nowadays,

digital games have been used in education that called

educational games. They use educational games as

teaching and learning tool in some subjects, such as

mathematics, science, history and language learning.

Digital games (video games or computer games) are

positively accepted among children and teenagers [1]. In

United States, Video game industry approaches yearly

revenues of 15 billion, with the game playing

population falls between the ages of 10-34 years old, the

majority are between 14-19 years old [2].A preliminary

study conducted in 16 local secondary schools involving

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on COMPUTERS Nor Azan Mat Zin, Azizah Jaafar, Wong Seng Yue

ISSN: 1109-2750 322 Issue 2, Volume 8, February 2009

341 students found that majority of them (92.1%) have

experienced playing computer or video games [1].

Games are played primarily for entertainment [3].

Games especially computer games are an important part

of leisure lives for young people.Computer games also

become one of the favorite online activities for

teenagers [4]. The most popular computer games

include role playing games, real time strategy games,

shooting and fighting games, adventure games, action

games, puzzle games and chess games [5].Games have

been integrated into education to form an innovative

educational paradigm [6]. Online game has been applied

to education in Korea as it has been used extensively [7].

Digital games, an interactive technology within the

multimedia learning environment could foster learning

process effectively and interestingly especially among

young learners. Despite the enormous potential of

DGBL, it is still difficult to integrate games into

curriculum of formal education. This is because of the

difficulty in identifying their relevance to the

curriculum, potential benefits and practical integration

method [5]. Researchers and game designers have noted

this promising technology and proposed some

frameworks and models to foster multimedia learning

environment[6]. The researches data also shown that the

use of games in education is perceived as a useful tool

for learning and destined to engage students in

educational experiences for achieving specific learning

goals and outcomes [8, 9].

DGBL is a paradigm which utilizes the game as a

medium for conveying the learning contents, it is all

about leveraging the power of computer games to

captivate and engage endusers for a specific purpose,

such as to develop new knowledge and skills [10].

DGBL is also defined as an applicationwhich uses the

characteristics of video and computer games to create

engaging and immersive learning experiences for

delivering specified learning goals, outcomes and

experiences [11]. DGBL is widely adopted in

manufacturing, energy/utilities, computer technology,

higher education, retail, financial, telecommunications,

pharmaceutical, hospitality, construction, computer

software, public departments and healthcare sectors

[10]. The intention of DGBL is to address new ways of

ICT based instructional design and at the same time

toprovide learners the possibility to acquire skills and

competencies [12].

In this paper, we do a preliminary analysis and

document analysis to find out the problems in teaching

and learning history. We also reviewedprevious studies

in the methodology development of educational games.

Then, we propose a DGBL Model for History

educational game designand the development

methodology for History educational games which is

based on ID andgame development models.

2 Teaching and learning of history This section discusses the problems in teaching and

learning of history, the GBL approach to teaching and

learning of history and the proposed components in

GBL Model for history courseware design. We also

present results of preliminary analysis carried out at

local secondary schools.

2.1 Problem of learning History subject According to Azwan et al. [13], Curriculum

Development Division reported that history subject is

known as a ‘dead’ and boring subject. In addition, our

society presume that history subject do not have

commercial value. Furthermore, the problems faced by

history teachers is that student have no interest in

studying history subject.

Students’ impression of history subject is that it is

difficult and very boring because one has to memorize

all facts in the text book besides understand those facts,

concepts, time and historical events [14, 15]. These

students’ attitude has indirectly caused the decrease in

passing percentage for Malaysian Certificate of

Education (SPM) examination and Higher School

Certificate of Malaysia (STPM) [15]. Failing percentage

of history subject for SPM examination in 2005 SPM

was 25.6% [16].

This failing percentage increased to 34.3% in 2006

[16, 17,18]. Failing percentage for history subject in

2005 STPM was 45.11% [19]. History was one of the

subjects showing a decrease of more than 3% in passing

percentage in SPM, thus necessitate a detailed analysis

and study for this poor performance [20].

Moreover, a study by Rozita and Zaliza [15] found

problems with history learning such as students’

attitude; namelylazy to read, read but did not memorize

facts, not interested in history subject, student interested

but have to memorize too many facts, cannot manage to

master the themes and the teaching and learning which

is not effective. The lack of creativity in history

teaching caused students to become bored and lose

interest in the subject [13].

History teaching in school is less challenging for

students’ mind and intellectual development and

learning by rote memorization also does not encourage

students’ analytical and critical thinking [14].

2.2 Findings from Preliminary Analysis A preliminary analysis was carried out to identify

problems and to determine the requirements to

overcome these problems. We did a document analysis

of SPM performance report from year 2002 to 2005

[16]. The report indicated that students in moderate



performance group are able to give good historical facts

but did not give suitable examples, and/or gave long

irrelevant elaboration. Students in low performance

group commented the questions without giving answers

and repeated the same facts, answered one/two

questions, did not understand questions and weak in

language style. As for structured questions, students are

confused, thus mixing all historical facts. They lacked

understanding and do not use historical facts properly.

Performance report (2002-2003) indicated that overall

students’ performance is less satisfactory. The report

(2005) also indicated that students still did not answer

questions properly but gave abstract answers.

Further investigation was carried out using

questionnaire and interview. Respondents for this study

are 582 form four students and fifteen teachers fromfive

local secondary schools in Selangor. Results show that

79% of students have problems when learning history.

Difficulty in memorizing facts is the main problem

faced by 69% of the students. Teaching media such as

boring text books also cause students to lose interest and

thus face problems when learning history. Table 1

shows details of problems faced by students. Problems

faced by students from teachers’ perception (Table 2)

also include difficulty in memorizing facts,besides

having no interest in history.

Table 1 Problems in history learning from students’

perception

Problems in history learning Percentage

(%)

Have no interest in history

because of teaching media

such as boring text books.

44.5

Have no interest in history

because of teacher’s boring

teaching method.

15.8

Lack of teaching aid/material

used by the teachers.

16.5

Lack of history references. 19.6

Did not get clear descriptions

about the historical events.

38.8

Difficult to memorize

historical facts.

70.6

Did not understand history

context.

37.3

Other. 7.9

This finding is supported with data from the

interview of form four history teachers [21, 22, 23]. The

problems are mainly that students are not interested in

learning history and have difficulty in memorizing too

old and too many historical facts. Noraini [22] also

mentioned that students have no interest in history

learning because there is too much and too boring text

contents. Additional problems are lack of teaching

aid/material and not proficient in Malay Language.

Interviews with history teachers [21, 22, 23, 24, 25]

also showed that there is currently no history

courseware used in schools. They agreed that game

based learning can help by providing interactive

elements for visualizing the continuity of historical

events. They also supported the development of history

courseware using GBL approach to increase students’

interest and performance inhistory [23] and to reduce

students’ boredom with history learning [25].

Findings from this survey also indicated that, 92%

students have experienced playing digital games. 27.7%

of them played games for less than 1 hour per week

while 16.4% played for 1 hour per week. Table 3 shows

students’ frequency of playing games.

Table 2 Problems in history learning from teachers’

perception

Students’ weaknesses in history

learning

Percentage

(%)

Did not get clear descriptions

about the historical events.

66.7

Difficult to memorize historical

facts.

100

Did not understand history

context.

60

Have no interest in learning

history.

100

Lack of history reference. 0

Other. 26.7

Table 3 Frequency of playing digital/electronic games

Frequency Percentage (%)

<1 hour/ week 27.7

1 hour/ week 16.4

2 hour/ week 15.8

3 hour/ week 13.6

4 hour/ week 5.6

>4 hour/ week 13.6

Different platforms for digital/electronic games are

television based system (such as the Sony PlayStation®

series, Nintendo GameCube™, Microsoft’s Xbox®,

Xbox 360™), Computer/PC-based DVD-ROM or CD-

ROM, Games-specific handheld consoles (such as

Nintendo’s Game Boy® and DS™ series, Sony’s

PSP™) using button and joystick control and other

handheld unit [mobile computer, mobilephones,

Personal Digital Assistants (PDA)]. Table 4 shows the

percentage of students using different platforms for

playing games, 66.7% use other handheld unit. Table 5

shows the percentage of students playing different types



of digital/electronic games. Most popular genres are

racing games (66.7%) and adventure games (62.1%).

Table 4 Percentage of students using different platforms

for playing digital/electronic games

Forms of digital/electronic

games

Percentage

(%)

Television based system (Sony

PlayStation® series, Nintendo

GameCube™, Microsoft’s

Xbox®, Xbox 360™)

61.6

PC-based DVD ROM or CD

ROM

58.8

Games-specific handheld

consoles (Nintendo’s Game

Boy® and DS™ series, Sony’s

PSP™) with using button and

joystick control)

41.8

Other handheld unit [mobile

computer, mobile phones,

P.D.As (Personal Digital

Assistants)]

66.7

Table 5 Percentage of the students playing different

types of digital/electronic games

Types of digital/electronic

games

Percentage (%)

Tactical shooters 42.4

Role playing 18.6

Racing 67.2

Car combat 26.6

sports game 50.8

adventure games 62.1

Fighting games 55.9

Combat Sims 19.8

Puzzle games 42.4

Rhythm games 21.5

Other 4.0

Table 6 Percentage of students and their reasons for

playing digital/electronic games

Reasons why I like to play

digital/electronic games

Percentage

(%)

Fun. 72.9

Fill up free time. 62.7

Enthusiastic with adventure

activity.

29.9

To show ability. 30.5

Enthusiastic with fantasy

world.

45.2

Other. 6.8

Furthermore, 83.6% of the students stated that they

like to play digital/ electronicgames, one reason being

gaming is fun, while 62.7% play games just to fill up

their free time. Table 6 shows the percentage of students

and their reasons for playing games. Table 7 presents

the advantages of playing digital/electronic games.

Table 7 Percentage of students rating the advantages of

playing digital/electronic games

Advantages of

playingdigital/electronic

games

Percentage

(%)

Fun. 53.7

Improve electronic gaming

skills.

39.0

Calming the thought. 49.2

A method to fill up the free

time.

50.8

Increase creativity. 47.5

Other. 5.1

In conclusion, many students surveyed have played

digital games previously, mostly using handheld units

such as mobile phone and PDA. Most of them played

racing and adventure games. 83.6% students like to play

games and 69.5% students stated that playing digital

games bring advantages to them. Findings from this

preliminary analysis showed that the main requirements

of game based history courseware are: illustrate history

facts clearly, increase students’ interest to learn history

and learn history through creative experience. Table 8

shows the requirements of GBL history courseware

from students’ perception.

In summary, key findings fromthe preliminary

analysis are: (1) types of problems faced by the students

in learning history; (2) need for interesting, creative

teaching approach such as interactive history

courseware to encourage history learning; (3) GBL

approach has potential to be used in the development of

interactive courseware to increase students’ interest in

learning history via an entertained experience; (4) 3D

and multimedia technology should be used in

development of interactive history courseware to

illustrate historical facts clearly thus increase history

learning.



Table 8 Requirements of a GBL courseware from

students’ perception

Requirements Percentage

(%)

Animate historical personality in

a virtual environment to enable

users to visualize the truth

through role playing.

61.6

Animated history event in a

virtual environment to enable

users to visualize the truth

through role playing.

54.8

Challenging adventure element. 53.1

Audio element for attraction to

history learning.

52.5

Video element for attraction to

history learning.

58.8

2D animation for attraction to

history learning.

22.6

3D animation for attraction to

history learning.

58.2

Graphic element for attraction to

history learning.

49.7

Adaptive learning based on

individuals’ ability.

48.0

Increase students’ interest in

history learning.

66.7

Learn history via an entertained

experience.

65.5

Illustrate historical facts clearly. 70.6

Other. 1.7

3 Current research in development

methodology of educational games According to Smith and Ragan [26], Instructional

Design is a systematic and reflective process of

interpreting principles of learning and instruction into

plans for instructional materials, activities, information

resources, and evaluation. Instructional designers need

to analyze, plan, implement and evaluate in such a way

that their work will do the most good with the least

harm, and to learn from mistakes to improve.

For the game development methodology, Thompson

et al. [27] stated that the digital games development

process consist of new game proposals, multiple idea,

concept selection, game development, game testing and

game launch.However, Phil Co [28] stated that the

digital games development process consist of pre-

production, high concept, design document,

prototype/demo, production, alpha testing, beta testing,

final candidate and GoldMaster.

Currently, there are a few studieson methodology

development for educational games. Simulation-Games

Instructional Systems Design Model (SG-ISD) is a

model proposed by Kirkley et al. [29]which support the

integration between development process of

Instructional Systems and game development. The

phases of SG-ISD consist of analysis, concept, design

and quality assurance. They have integrated SG-ISD

Model into a prototype authoring system which supports

the upfront analysis and design process while enabling

any game engine to be used as the development and

delivery platform. They have studied ADDIE model,

spiral design approach, user-centered instructional

design and Waterfall development model for game.

There are no other details mentioned after the design

and quality assurance phase.

According to Han and Zhang [5], Quasi Game

Based Learning (Quasi-GBL) is an instructional method

which integrates game elements with role play in

collaborative learning for the undergraduate course

“Software Engineering”. In Quasi-GBL, seven basic

elements including goal, rule, competition, challenge,

fantasy, safety and entertainment are embedded into

roleplaying and manifest themselves in the forms of real

problems, individual tasks and group collaboration,

scores, puzzles, awards and replays. Seven steps are

involved in Quasi-GBL which comprised grouping,

nomination, nomination of project manager, nomination

of other roles, requirement analysis, design,

implementation and deployment. However, application

of Quasi-GBL processesis confusing, andthe activities

or steps involved in all phases were not well explained.

Ho et al. [30] studied games based e-learning design

and developmentof Virtual Filial Piety Legend which

consists of analysis phase(learning goal and learner

analysis), development phase (deciding the learner’s

role and situation, demonstrations of problem models)

and creative phase (problem analysis and selection as

well as evaluations). However, they did not mention the

game development process in methodology. On the

other hand, Games for Activating Thematic

Engagement (GATE) is a design theory intended to

provide specific guidance to instructional designers on

how to design and implement video games for engaging

learners in a given topic or field [31]. GATE consistsof

activities of developing the context, problem space or

world of experience; preparing learners to benefit from

game and implement game as designed; and providing

feedback to the learner.

Flanagan and Nissenbaum [32] alsostudied a

methodological framework named Value at Play (VAP)

which was developed to foster values integration into

the design process through the creation of a toolkit. The

VAP framework has been further developed through

work with RAPUNSEL, a dance game to teach girls



about programming. The VAP approach comprises

three “constitutive” and iterative activities named

discovery, translation and verification. This

methodology did not mention instructional part for

game design methodology.

Hays [33] proposed a systematic approach for

instructional game design, involving three main parts;

understanding the instructional environment (develop

problem statement, develop instructional objectives and

select game strategy), develop the game (develop game

model, develop students’ role in game and develop rules,

events and winning criteria) as well as implement and

evaluate the game (develop supporting game resources,

evaluate game compared to alternate instruction &

modify game based on results of evaluation). The

weakness in this approach is that the methodology

follows just a linear path, there is no iterative way

should problem occurred in any of the steps.

Rothschild [34] studied the principles of good game

design and learning.They merge instructional and game

design results in the JUMP Into Reading for Meaning

(JUMP) game. Content specialists created and

organized instructional content to support the program

requirement while game and instructional design

specialists integrated the content into a game design that

used the key game characteristics of fantasy, rules and

goals, sensory stimulus, challenge, genre and form

mystery, control and mystery.

There are a few shortcomings in the development

methodology for DGBL from the studies reviewed: (a)

do not explain instructional part clearly in game

development methodology; (b) methodology is just a

linear process, does not providefor iterative

development process; (c) some phases or activities in

the methodology model are not clear.These are the gaps

need to fill up with the detail model for educational

game development. The educational game development

methodology should include ID part and game

development part so that can increase the learning

effectiveness through an educational game. To develop

an well educational game, all activities must clear and it

is an iterative process.

4 DGBL Model for History educational

games design Several previous studies showed that there are a

growing number of researchers exploring the potential

of digital games for engaging students in learning

experience. They studied how to develop a model which

can support ID for effective design and integrating game

process in a learning environment efficiently. Therefore,

we believe that DGBL approach has the potential to

help overcome problems in history learning, especially

for the younger IT generation students.

Games were subdivided by time and by place. There

are four types of games, which are synchronous/ central

game, synchronous/ distributed game, asynchronous/

central game and asynchronous/ distributed game [35].

This history educational game is synchronous/ central

game. This game session usually take place

synchronously, group of students come together in a

classroom. The sessions will take an hour, twice a week.

Students will communicate by face to face meetings.

There are a lot of opportunities for informal

communication like non-verbal communication and

small-talk, for example asking for help. The session is

also not interrupted and external disturbances can be

avoided. Students cannot block the progress of the game

and speed of play is high and intensive [35].

We proposed components in the form of a Model

for history educational games design using DGBL

approach as shown in Fig. 1.The main components

identified are pedagogy and digital games. For the

pedagogy component, several elements are elaborated

as follows:

(A) Learning goal setting

A clear learning goal setting in history courseware

design with DGBL approach is important to help

accomplish the learning goals for history learning.

(B) Learning theory setting

Selection of suitable learning theories for history

learning is important to foster the learning process

effectively.

(C) Educational Psychology

Educational psychology is a discipline concerned with

the overall teaching and learning process, for example,

the influence of development and differences among

individuals on the process of learning [36]. Therefore,

educational psychology is one of the crucial

components in history courseware design for delivering

an effective history lesson to learners.

(D) Country curriculum needs

Each country has different curriculum.Integrated

Curriculum for Secondary School (KBSM) is a

curriculum used in Malaysian schools. Therefore,

KBSM components need to be considered for DGBL

approach to history courseware design to ensure that the

courseware meets the curriculum needs.

(E) Patriotism and moral value

Patriotism and moral values embedded in history

learning through a history courseware with DGBL



approach is important to foster the spirit of loyalty to the

country.

(F) Memorization and forgetting theory

According to Davidovitch et al. [37], the learning

process comprised of forgetting components, which is

applicable when the learning phase is ended or when the

learning process includes breaks. A study on the process

of learner memorization and how forgetting occurred

especially in history learning, is important for designing

a history courseware which can help the student to

memorize history more effectively.

For the Digital Game, several components that need

to be considered during designinclude:

(A) Game story’s background

BackgroundStoryof every game is important as it shows

how historicalevents happened. Features of each events

which consist of date, location and time need to be

designed properly and not digressed from original

historical facts stated in history syllabus.

(B) Rules

Clear instructions and rules for every game are very

important. It is a guideline and regulations for learnersto

follow when they are involved in the game play.

(C) Immersive

The game design should make learners feel immersive

and absorbed when involved in each game play.

Fig. 1 Proposed components in DGBL Model for History educational games design



(D) Enjoyment

Enjoyment is a crucial component that makes the

learners enjoy with the game play. Without enjoyment

of game play, learners will simply give up the game

play.

(E) Feedback

Learner’s feedback is the instant learning response in

the game. The user interface design in the game design

should make it easy for learners to give feed back to the

game.

(F) Multimedia technology

Multimedia effects with 2D or 3D animations,

immersive graphical environment and imitative

soundare important to attract learners to involve

themselves in every game play.

(G) Challenge & competition

Every student has different abilities for every game play.

Challenge of one game play should match learners’ skill

level without being boring and not tolet them give up

easily. Competition setting for each history game design

is important for game level and so is the difficulties

setting.

(H) Reward/Award

Reward/award is one of the ways to motivate learners to

continue the game play and overcome the difficulties of

each game level.Students’ engagement and cooperation

among students in every game play is the way of giving

mutualsupport in history learning together

towardsaccomplishing the learning goal.

5 Development methodology for History

educational games design History educational games development process

focused on development methodology to produce game

based multimedia educational application. An

educational game design and development model is

developed based on ID and game development

methodology. Fig. 2 illustrated the proposed

methodology in the form of digital game based learning-

ID model (DGBL-ID). Each phase consist of activities

which need to be accomplished before moving on to the

next phase. The DGBL-ID model consists of five phases,

which are analysis phase, design phase, development

phase, quality assurance phase as well as

implementation and evaluation phase. Each phase

consists of a few steps to be completed. The phases

mentioned include all the main activities for

instructional part and game part so that the educational

game will enable students to learn while they are

playing games.

Previous research studiedshowed the models or

steps for educational game development, but did not

explain details for each phase or step.

For DGBL-ID Model, we will test the quality and

content of the educational game before we launch to

learners. After the quality assurance phase, we will

launch the game and do the usability and effectiveness

evaluation to make sure that learners learn effectively

when they are playing the immersive game. After the

quality assurance phase, we do not go back to design

phase, but we just do a modification to improve the

game since it take a long time to re-design the game,

determine specification, implement and testing again.

Analysis phase includes the process of

determination learning goal, learning analysis as well as

problem and requirement analysis. Problems faced by

the students in history learning and the students’

readiness for digital game based learning was analyzed

via interview and questionnaire. Students’

characteristics such as students’ learning style and their

existing knowledge were also analyzed. Game idea for

the digital game based courseware was also determined

in this phase. Then, the types of game platform (such as

television platform, computer platform or mobile phone

platform) and game features are analyzed and selected.

Game platform and game features’ strength and

weakness will be analyzed so that it can help students

learn history in a suitable game environment.

In design phase, teaching and game design were

determined. Delivery method and teaching strategy

which is used in educational game were determined so

that the outcomes of the design can help to achieve

learning outcomes. Constructivism, information

processing model, Tolman learning theory are the

teaching and learning theories used in the design of

History educational game. Inquiry, narrative and

problem solving are the teaching strategies used in

history educational game development. In game design,

storyboard for the History digital game based

courseware was built, the types of multimedia elements

(text, graphic, audio and video) were determined for

every game script and screen. Game play design also

play a vital role at this design phase, it shows how a

player play in an educational game. If a player need to

shoot an enemy, design of the game must be determined

either to use mouse click or joystick. Besides that, art

design is a design process of game’s character, game’s

environment, game’s background and game’s object

such as car, gun, ball and ship. Character’s features and

motion need to be designed before development phase.

In addition, the features of game’s level also need to

be designed and determined. Each game’s level needs to

be designed well from the beginning until the end of the



ANALYSIS

DESIGN

DEVELOPMENT

QUALITY

ASSURANCE

IMPLEMENTATION AND

EVALUATION

START

END

Requirement and problem

analysis

Statement of learning objective

Determination of students’

characteristics

Determination of game idea

Definition of teaching

environment via game

Game designInstructional design

Develop lesson plan for History

subject

Evaluation and modification

Develop teaching

resources

Improve game’s quality

Check game’s content

Launching

Check game’s quality

Develop game prototype

Fig. 2 Digital Game Based Learning-Instructional Design Model (DGBL-ID) for History educational games.



game, such as trap and the types of challenge. Game’s

technical specifications such as types of tools which

need to be used are determined. As an example,

hardware and software specifications need to be

determined for computer platform to be used for the

digitalgame-based courseware. At the same time,

suitable programming language for the development is

determined. The types of lesson plan and teaching

resources which needs to be inserted in game menu

must be provided before development of educational

game prototype. Everything about the lesson plan such

as learning outcomes, teaching syllabus and teaching

plan need to be inserted in the educational game.

Teaching resources such as historical photos of people,

and buildings need to be collected before the

development of educational game.

To develop the prototype (development phase), the

types of game technology need to be determined. The

history character can be modeled via modeling software

such as 3D Studio Max or Maya.In this research,

Virtools is selected for developing this 3D educational

game. Game’s level isthen developed, followed by the

difficulty level. Player’s data and score will be saved in

database of the prototype. Player’s role and situation

also need to be determined for the prototype

development.

During the quality assurance phase, the educational

game prototype which is well developed will be tested.

The prototype’s quality will be checked before

implementation. The prototype will be tested via play

testing, alpha testing and beta testing. Alpha testing is to

test whether the game can be played from the

beginninguntil the end. Beta testing will test for errors

such asgame’s interactivity. For example, the game

character can walk through the wall and texture

mapping error for game character and game

environment. This checking is a must to ensure the

educational game prototype will not have error when the

players play the game. In addition, game’s features will

be improved by solving the problems caused by the

game’s error. The game’scontent will also be checked to

ensure compliance tolearning outcomes and learning

contents based on the syllabus.

For theimplementation and evaluation phase, the

prototype will be developed and tested completely. It

will be launched in Compact Disc (CD) form. This

educational game will be installed in school computer

lab for evaluation. The effectiveness and usability

ofPMIS prototype will be evaluated by target users-

form four students who took History subject.

6 Conclusions Educational games have become a huge research which

enabled players to learn some knowledge while they

play in an immersive game environment. Since students

and teachers perceived history as a boring subject

because it is difficult to memorize facts, we believe that

history educational games can be used as an alternative

to foster history learning in an entertained experience.

Therefore, we propose a DGBL model for History

educational game design and a

developmentmethodology, DGBL-ID for History

educational gameswhich blend the instructional design

process and gamedevelopment process.

7 Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge MOHE for

partly funding this project under the grant UKM-GUP-

TMK-07-03-037 and we thank all individuals and

organizationswho have contributed to this study.

References:

[1] Rubijesmin Abdul Latif. Understanding

Malaysian students as gamers: experience.

Proceedings of the2nd International conference on

Digital interactive media in entertainment and

arts, 2007, pp. 137-141.

[2] Annetta, L.A. and Cheng, Meng-Tzu. Why

educational video games? In. Annetta, L.A.

Serious educational games: from theory to

practice, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, 2008.

[3] Baranowski, T., Buday, R., Thompson, D.I. and

Baranowski, J., Playing for real video games and

stories for health-related behavior change,

American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Vol.34,

No.1,2008, pp.74-82.

[4] Stefanescu, C., Chirita, V., Chirita, R. & Chele, G.

Network identity, the internet addiction and

Romanian teenagers. Proceedings of the 4th

WSEAS/IASME International Conference on

Engineering Education, Agios Nikolaos, Crete

Island, Greece, July 24-26, 2007.

[5] Han Zhi and Zhang Zhenhong. Integration of

game elements with role play in collaborative

learning – a case study of quasi-GBL in chinese

higher education. Edutainment, 2008, pp. 427-

435.

[6] Tan, Phit Huan, Ling, Siew Woei and Ting, Choo

Yee. Adaptive digital game based learning

framework.DIMEA’07 Proceedings of the 2nd

international conference on digital interactive



multimedia in entertainment and arts, 2007, pp.

142-146.

[7] Lee, Chulhyun & Han, Seonkwan. Development

of the scale for diagnosing online game addiction.

Proceedings of the 3rd WSEAS/IASME

International Conference on Educational

Technologies, Arcachon, France, October 13-15,

2007.

[8] Vasiliou, A. & Economides, A.A. Game-based

learning using MANETs. Proceedings of the 4th

WSEAS/IASME International Conference on

Engineering Education, Agios Nikolaos, Crete

Island, Greece, July 24-26, 2007.

[9] Garcia-Barcena, J. & Garcia-Crespo, A. Game

based learning: a research on learning content

management systems. Proceedings of the 5th

WSEAS International Conference on Educational

Technology, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain,

December 16-18, 2006.

[10] Corti,K.Games-based Learning; a serious

business

application.www.pixelearning.com/docs/seriousg

amesbusinessapplications.pdf. 2006.

[11] Freitas, S.D.Learning in immersive worlds: a

review of game-based learning.

http://www.tjtaylor.net/research/Learning-in-

Immersive-worlds-Review-ofGame-Based-

Learning-Sare-de-Freitas-JISC-2006.pdf, 2006.

[12] Pivec, M and Kearney, P. Games for learning and

learning from games. Informatica, Vol.31, 2007,

pp. 419-423.

[13] Azwan Ahmad, Abdul Ghani Abdullah,

Mohammad Zohir Ahmad and Abd. Rahman Hj.

Abdul Aziz. Kesan efikasi kendiri guru Sejarah

terhadap amalan pengajaran berbantukan

Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi (ICT).

Jurnal Penyelidikan Pendidikan 7: 15-24, 2005.

[14] Hazri Jamil. Technique of teaching History. PTS

Publications & Distributors, Bentong, 2003.

[15] Rozita Ngah Mohamad and Zaliza Md. Zali.

Increasing the skill of answer esey questions for

History paper 2 SPM. Proceeding Education

Research Seminar IPBA 2005, pp. 106-113, 2005.

[16] Malaysian Examination Syndicates. Students’

performance analysis report for History subject

SPM 2003-2006, 2007.

[17] Berita Harian. 14 March 2007.

[18] The Star. 14 March 2007.

[19] Malaysian Examination Council. 2005 STPM

Examination Report Binding 1 for Art Stream.

Oxford Fajar, Shah Alam, 2006.

[20] New Straits Times. 14 March 2007.

[21] Hanum Yacob. Problems in teaching and learning

history subject, Kajang. Interview, 25 September

2007.

[22] Noraini Mahat. Problems in teaching and

learning history subject, Kajang. Interview, 25

September 2007.

[23] Puvanesvary, K.R.S. Problems in teaching and

learning history subject, Kajang. Interview, 25

September 2007.

[24] Nik Rosnani Nik Mustapa. Problems in teaching

and learning history subject, Kajang. Interview,

25 September 2007.

[25] Rosnee. Problems in teaching and learning

history subject, Kajang. Interview, 25 September

2007.

[26] Smith, P.L. & Ragan, T.J. Instructional Design.

3rdEd., John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, 2005.

[27] Thompson, J., Berbank-Green, B. and Cusworth,

N. The computer game design course: principles,

practices and techniques for the aspiring game

designer. Thames & Hudson, London, 2007.

[28] Phil Co. Level design for games: creating

compelling game experiences, New Riders,

Berkeley, 2006.

[29] Kirkley, S.E., Tomblin, S. and Kirkley, J.

Instructional design authoring support for the

development of serious games and mixed reality

training. Interservice/Industry Training,

Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC),

2005.

[30] Ho Pei-Chi, Chung Szu-Ming and Tsai Ming-

Hsin.A case study of game design for e-learning.

Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, 2006.

[31] Watson, W.R. Formative research on an

instructional design theory for educational video

games. Thesis Doctor of Philosophy,

IndianaUniversity, 2007.

[32] Flanagan, M, and Nissenbaum, H. A game design

methodology to incorporate social activist themes.

Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on

Human factors in computing systems, 2007, pp.

181-190.

[33] Hays, R.T. The effectiveness of instructional

games: a literature review and discussion.

Technical report 2005-004, 2005.

[34] Rothschild, M.K. The instructional design of an

educational game: form and function in JUMP.

http://www.prel.org/media/100338/instructional design and games.pdf. 2008.

[35] Hijden, P.V.D. On the development of workflow-

based asynchronous group simulations. 36th

annual conference of the International Simulation

and Gaming Association (ISAGA), Atlanta GA,

USA, 27th June – 1st July, 2005.

[36] Jordan, E.A. & Parath, M.J. Educational

psychology: a problem-based approach. Pearson,

Boston, 2006.



[37] Davidovitch, L., Parush, A. and Shtub, A.

Simulation-based learning: the learning-

forgetting-relearning process and impact of

learning history. Computers & Education, Article

in press, 2006.



Documents

Digital Game-based learning (DGBL) model and development